Surface sporopollen and modern vegetation in Hongshanzui area, Altai, Xinjiang, China

doi:10.17521/cjpe.2020.0195

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims Our aims are 1) to explore the relationship between vegetation and sporopollen in the surface soil in the Hongshanzui area, which is located in the middle slope of the Altai Mountains, 2) to compare different sporopollen assemblages zones between the Hongshanzui area and the Kanas region, which is located in the western slope of the Altai Mountains of Xinjiang, and 3) to explore the relationships between surface sporopollen and environmental factors.
Methods We collected 37 surface soil samples and carried out modern vegetation survey in the Hongshanzui area along an altitudinal gradient from 745 to 2 413 m. Mathematical statistics and redundancy analysis (RDA) were applied to analyze the distribution pattern of sporopollen in surface soil and its relationships with modern vegetation.
Important findings The results showed that the sporopollen spectrum of surface soil in Hongshanzui area was divided into four zones from top to bottom along the altitudinal gradient, corresponding to the major vegetation types in this region, including subalpine meadow, mountain coniferous forest, shrub steppe and desert steppe. The typical tree species, Picea and Pinus pollen, and shrub species Ephedra,herbs Amaranthaceae and Artemisia,were extra representation in the region, mainly because of the impact of wind and rivers in sporopollen dispersal. Larix,Poaceae, and Cyperaceae had low representations in communities where they were dominant species. Many previous sporopollen studies have shown that the ratio of the percentage of pollen content ofArtemisia to Amaranthaceae (Ar/Am) was a good indicator of the degree of humidity in the semi-arid and arid areas. Our study confirms that Ar/Am roughly corresponded to the wet and dry conditions of the climate vertical zone in this area. To some extent, the low Ar/Am ratio for shrub steppe also reflected the influence of human activities on shrub steppe. Compared with the western slope of Kanas, the characteristics of sporopollen assemblage zones in the Hongshanzui region were incomplete, and the distribution height of similar sporopollen zones in this area was higher than that on the western slope of Kanas. In addition, the results of RDA on sporopollen assemblages and environmental factors (mean annual temperature (MAT), mean annual precipitation (MAP) and altitude (ALT)) revealed that the MAP was the main environmental factor affecting sporopollen assemblages in the surface soil in the Hongshanzui region.

Key words: Altai Mountains, surface sporopollen, vegetation coverage, environmental factor, Ordination analyses

LI Yuan-Yuan, ZHANG Yun, KONG Zhao-Chen, YANG Zhen-Jing. Surface sporopollen and modern vegetation in Hongshanzui area, Altai, Xinjiang, China[J]. Chin J Plant Ecol, 2021, 45(2): 174-186.

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URL: https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/10.17521/cjpe.2020.0195

https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/Y2021/V45/I2/174

Figures/Tables 8

Fig. 1 Study area and locations of the sporopollen sampling sites in the Hongshanzui region of Xinjiang.

Fig. 2 Surface sporopollen percentages and sporopollen zones of the Hongshanzui region in Xinjiang. The pollen percentages of Asteraceae in the figure are the values excluding Artemisia, Taraxacum and Aster; the pollen percentages of Rosaceae and Polygonaceae are the values excluding Potentilla and Polygonum, respectively. ALT, altitude; AP/NAP, arboreal pollen/non-arboreal pollen; Ar/Am, Artemisia/Amaranthaceac pollen.

Fig. 3 Ordination of pollen sampling sites and sporopollen taxa of the Hongshanzui region in Xinjiang in the space of the first two axes of the redundancy analysis (RDA). ALT, altitude; MAP, mean annual precipitation; MAT, mean annual air temperature. Number means surface soil samples.

Table 1 Pearson correlations between the proportions of six sporopollen taxa and three environmental factors of the Hongshanzui region in Xinjiang

	云杉属 Picea	落叶松属 Larix	苋科 Amaranthaceae	毛茛科 Ranunculaceae	石竹科 Caryophyllaceae	阴地蕨属 Botrychium
海拔 Altitude	0.218	0.663^**	-0.553^**	0.274	0.674^**	0.408^*
年平均气温 Mean annual air temperature	-0.357^*	-0.608^**	0.635^**	-0.329^*	-0.617^**	-0.469^**
年降水量 Mean annual precipitation	0.330^*	0.596^**	-0.611^**	0.313	0.624^**	0.494^**

Fig. 4 Relationship between tree pollen and vegetation zones of the Hongshanzui region in Xinjiang.

Fig. 5 Ratio of Artemisia and Amaranthaceae in four sporopollen zones of the Hongshanzui region in Xinjiang.

Table 2 Mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean annual precipitation (MAP)(mean) of the same altitude range in Hongshanzui and Western Kanas, Xinjiang

海拔高度 Altitude (m)	MAT (℃)		MAP (mm)
海拔高度 Altitude (m)	红山嘴 Hongshanzui	喀纳斯西坡 Western slope of Kanas	红山嘴 Hongshanzui	喀纳斯西坡 Western slope of Kanas
600-800	3.38	3.82	180	181
800-1 000	2.66	2.24	190	195
1 000-1 200	1.64	1.10	206	213
1 200-1 400	0.33	0.09	222	229
1 400-1 600	-1.75	-2.00	257	264

Fig. 6 Comparison between the altitudes of different sporopollen vertical zones on western slopes of Kanas and Hongshanzui area, Xinjiang.

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